The formation of our solar system from a singular nebula raises an intriguing question: why did each planet develop with a ...

When you first learned about the Solar System, you probably saw diagrams that made it look orderly, with planets arranged in circular orbits around the Sun on a flat disk. But in reality, our Solar ...

Scientists have long debated why Earth and Mars lack certain essential elements. A new study reveals that these missing ...

This one is rife with active star-formation in its surrounding nebula of gas and dust and ... the original star cluster in which our own solar system formed. But early such clusters are tumultuous ...

Discover how a giant interstellar cloud known as the solar nebula gave birth to our solar system and everything in it. The solar system as we know it began life as a vast, swirling cloud of gas and ...

In a stunning astronomical discovery, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unveiled a spectacular image of HH 30, a ...

Artist rendition of the protosun and the solar nebula. Oxygen isotopes can be altered by ultraviolet light (gold arrows) in this environment as well. Short-lived radiogenic isotopes of aluminum ...

Earliest inner solar system planetesimals shaped the inventory of moderately volatile elements in terrestrial planets.

This story appears in the July 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine. The dust speck had been plucked from the tail of a comet more than 200 million miles away. Now, under an electron ...